iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 4h

Franz Kafka referenced many books in his work. Here are a few public domain authors and books he was known to love. Sentimental Education By Gustave Flaubert The Magic Mountain By Thomas Mann The Sorrows of Young Werther By J.W. Von Goethe Short Fiction By Nikolai Gogol

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https://standardebooks.org/ebooks

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 29/09/2026

“A million candles have burned themselves out. Still I read on.” ― Not Edgar Allan Poe While this is a great quote, this isn’t anything Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote. It is usually attributed to Montresor from "The Cask of Amontillado," but it is simply not in the text or in any of Poe’s writings.🕯️

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 28/09/2026

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.” – Rumi

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 25/09/2026

“Cats – by day the most docile of God’s creatures, every one of them in the night enlisting under the devil’s banner – took the place by storm after the human voice had ceased.” ― W.H. Davies, The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 24/09/2026

What's that one book your friends are tired of hearing you talk about?

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 23/09/2026

"...autumn — that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness — that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling." – Jane Austen, Persuasion

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 21/09/2026

“We must ourselves develop the men and women who will faithfully portray the inmost thoughts and feelings of the Negro with all the fire and romance which lie dormant in our history...” Pauline E. Hopkins, Contending Forces standardebooks.org/ebooks/pauli...

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https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/pauline-e-hopkins/contending-forces

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 19/09/2026

“It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.” ― Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education standardebooks.org/ebooks/gusta...

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https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/gustave-flaubert/sentimental-education/m-walter-dunne

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 17/09/2026

“There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away.” – Emily Dickinson

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 15/09/2026

"September 15th—This is the month of quiet days, crimson creepers, and blackberries; of mellow afternoons in the ripening garden; of tea under the acacias instead of the too shady beeches; of wood-fires in the library in the chilly evenings." – Elizabeth von Arnim, Elizabeth and Her German Garden

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 14/09/2026

"Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought; indeed I have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of my intellectual power except when hearing good music." John Meade Faulkner, The Lost Stradivarius standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-...

standardebooks.org

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-meade-falkner/the-lost-stradivarius

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 11/09/2026

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-sco...

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https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-scott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 10/09/2026

What is the ultimate "autumn" book?

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 09/09/2026

“Examples are more powerful than precepts; hence I quote them.” ― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Art of Illustration standardebooks.org/ebooks/c-h-s...

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 08/09/2026

“You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.” ― Arthur Ransome

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 04/09/2026

“But devils are subservient to certain influences of the stars, because magicians observe the course of certain stars in order to evoke the devils.” ― Heinrich Kramer, Malleus Maleficarum standardebooks.org/ebooks/heinr...

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https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/heinrich-kramer/malleus-maleficarum/montague-summers

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 03/09/2026

“Telling a story is like reaching into a granary full of wheat and drawing out a handful. There is always more to tell than can be told.” ― Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 01/09/2026

"Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” ― Oscar Wilde

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 31/08/2026

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” – Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 28/08/2026

“the house of fiction has...not one window, but a million...every one of which has been pierced, or is still pierceable...by the need of the individual vision and by the pressure of the individual will.” – Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 27/08/2026

"If he was to solve the mystery of Marlborough—and there was a mystery, for he felt it like two huge dark wings hovering over the entire community—he must do it all by himself." -Herbert Gorman, The Place Called Dagon

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 26/08/2026

“To ride a bicycle properly is very like a love affair—chiefly it is a matter of faith. Believe you do it, and the thing is done; doubt, and, for the life of you, you cannot.” ― H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 24/08/2026

Thanks to the newest members of the Patron's Circle. We were hoping to secure 40 new members by the end of today, and as of this posting, we have 53! Our stretch goal is 60. Will you help us with a #donation and support free, unrestricted digital #literature? standardebooks.org/donate#patro...

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 21/08/2026

Here's Jack London holding a pig because...it's Friday. Happy weekend reading! 🐷

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 19/08/2026

"All the angry and bitter feelings that I thought burnt out for ever when I lay waiting for death, are stirred up as hotly as they were long ago. The old self is here as strong as ever!” ― Charlotte Mary Yonge, Clever Woman of the Family standardebooks.org/ebooks/charl...

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 18/08/2026

We want to welcome 40 new patrons by Aug 24, and we are so close! It’s our patrons who keep us on the stable financial footing needed to produce and give away beautiful #ebooks. Will you become a patron and support free and unrestricted digital #literature? standardebooks.org/donate#patro...

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 18/08/2026

“Tis not unreasonable for me to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.” ― David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature standardebooks.org/ebooks/david...

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https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/david-hume/a-treatise-of-human-nature

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 17/08/2026

With the publication of "If I Had a Father" by George MacDonald, there are officially 1,500 books in the SE library! This is a labor of love that could not happen without the generosity of our donors and patrons. Thank you for keeping these wonderful works of literature alive and readable today!

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 17/08/2026

We are looking for 40 new patrons by August 24! Patrons help bring beautiful digital literature to life. And it comes with some perks! 1. Your name on our masthead. 2. Access to various ebook feeds! 3. Bulk ebook downloads. 4. Submit a book for inclusion. 5. Vote on which books are produced next.

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 14/08/2026

Did you know the term "robot" was coined by Czech writer, playwright, critic, and journalist Karel Čapek in his 1920 play "R.U.R.," or Rossum's Universal Robots? “Robot” is derived from the Czech word meaning “worker.” You can read the whole thing here: standardebooks.org/ebooks/karel...

standardebooks.org

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/karel-capek/r-u-r/paul-selver_nigel-playfair

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 12/08/2026

“Rossum’s Universal Robots will produce so much wheat, so much cloth, so much everything that things will no longer have any value. Everyone will be able to take as much as he needs...Yes, people will be out of work, but by then there’ll be no work left to be done." ― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 11/08/2026

Vladimir Nabokov once admitted, "I dislike Jane Austen, and am prejudiced, in fact against all women writers. They are in another class." Later, after reading Austen's Mansfield Park, he recanted and began teaching this novel in his literary course. It is good to change our minds.

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 11/08/2026

"The wise can often profit by the lessons of a foe, for caution is the mother of safety." – Aristophanes, The Birds

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 06/08/2026

“I am willing to serve my country, but my worship I reserve for Right which is far greater than my country. To worship my country as a god is to bring a curse upon it.” ― Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World standardebooks.org/ebooks/rabin...

A book cover image for "The Home and the World" by Rabindranath Tagore depicting a close-up painting of a dapper looking man wearing spectacles, curly hair, and a nice beard and moustache.

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 04/08/2026

Did you know Charles Dickens, in an attempt to battle insomnia and improve his creativity while reading and writing, always slept facing north? 🧭

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 31/07/2026

August is "Women in Translation Month!" Let's grow each other's TBR piles a bit. What are some of your favorite translated books written by women?

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 29/07/2026

Oscar Wilde at 28, photographed by Napoleon Sarony in 1882.

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 28/07/2026

If you could erase the experience of reading one book to experience it for the first time again, what book would you choose?

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 27/07/2026

If all the world were music, Our hearts would often long For one sweet strain of silence. To break the endless song. If life were always merry, Our souls would seek relief, And rest from weary laughter In the quiet arms of grief. – Henry van Dyke Jr. standardebooks.org/ebooks/henry...

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 23/07/2026

“Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.” ― Leo Tolstoy

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 21/07/2026

The Master said, “I will not be afflicted at men’s not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men.” –Confucius, Analects

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 17/07/2026

“I had aimed at Mars and was about to hit Venus; unquestionably the all-time cosmic record for poor shots.” ― Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pirates of Venus standardebooks.org/ebooks/edgar...

Book cover for "Pirates of Venus" by Edgar Rice Burroughs depicting a close up painting of strange trees.

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 15/07/2026

“Theoretically he knew that life is possible, may even be pleasant, without joy, without passionate griefs. But it had never occurred to him that he might have to live like that.” ― Willa Cather, The Professor's House standardebooks.org/ebooks/willa...

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 13/07/2026

“I don't ask you for your love; give me yourself and your hatred; give me yourself and that pretty rage; give me yourself and that enchanting scorn; it will be enough for me.” ― Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood New book just dropped: standardebooks.org/ebooks/charl...

A bookcover for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" by Charles Dickens featuring an old archway leading up to a larger estate. Far away to shadowy figures walk in the gardens.

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Standard Ebooks @standardebooks.org · 10/07/2026

What is the book that started it all for you? Where did you fall in love with reading?

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